


Honor

by PhoenixVictoria



Series: The Chronicles of Hallie Jordan [1]
Category: Green Lantern (2011)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-13
Updated: 2013-11-13
Packaged: 2018-01-01 08:28:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1042599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoenixVictoria/pseuds/PhoenixVictoria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The events of the movie and earlier, from Hallie Jordan's point of view.</p><p>"-because you, Hallie Jordan, were afraid," says Parallax with a voice like booming thunder and agonized screams, and seriously, fuck him. She isn't going to take this shit from a giant floating lightbulb.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Honor

Hallie Jordan meets Carol Ferris when she is six. Mommy and Daddy are having Daddy's new boss over for dinner, and they have a little girl who's six too. Hallie's not impressed at first. Carol Ferris is pretty (perfect dark hair and perfect dark eyes) and wearing a pretty red dress. She's really clean and her teeth are white and straight. Hallie has wildly curly hair that's brownish-blond and a complete mess. Her knees are skinned and her right arm is in a cast from falling out the tree in the backyard. She has a cut on her cheek and she's wearing jeans with frayed cuffs. They don't say anything to each other, and after a while Daddy sits them down with crayons and paper. Hallie draws a Sabre, just like Daddy flies only a little messy, and when she glances over at the pretty girl sitting across from her she sees the same thing. She leans over.

 

"I'm going to fly one of those someday," she says.

 

"Me too," says Carol.

* * *

She's standing next to Carol when her father dies. They've been admiring her Daddy's Sabre jacket, stroking the soft leather, and when Hallie looks up she sees a fireball where she knows her Daddy was just a minute ago.

* * *

She can't cry at the funeral. She can't speak either. She wants her Daddy to come lift her up and call her his baby girl, toss her in the air and pretend like he's going to drop her just to scare Mommy. Mommy is crying, Jack is crying, Jim is crying, even Carol is crying, but she can't feel anything.

 

After she's spent two days without speaking, Carol sleeps over. It's their very first sleepover and Carol insists on painting her nails Princess Pink. (She hates pink and she thinks princesses are stupid and she doesn't like painting her nails, but it doesn't matter.)

 

Carol pauses on her left thumb, applicator dripping with Princess Pink. "I'm sorry about your Daddy," she says, softly.

 

Hallie gives a choking sob and flings her arms around her, and if she gets Princess Pink in Carol's perfect hair, no one cares.

* * *

They grow up. Both of them are short, but curvy, with wide hips and quick-to-develop breasts. They could share clothes like sisters if Hallie ever owned anything Carol wanted to borrow and Carol was willing to lend her clothes to someone who will cover it with ketchup (or barbecue sauce, or blood, or once, memorably, cat vomit) or split it open rolling around in the dirt. They both have excellent grades, (Hallie because the first time she gets a B her mother grounds her for a month) but Carol is quiet and polite and only speaks when called upon, and Hallie is loud and foul-mouthed and sarcastic and completely incapable of tolerating the idiocy of her less competent teachers, and thus always in trouble. They don't have much money- her father brought home the bacon, and his life insurance wears out when she's ten. Jack's sixteen by then, he gets a job and she mows lawns and shovels snow for the neighbors. She loves her brothers, though they spend an awful lot of time wrestling and screaming at each other. She never stops climbing trees and riding her bike as fast as she can and jamming her head out the windows of moving cars, always searching for that wonderful, elusive thrill.

 

They meet Tom when they're in ninth grade, walking down the deserted hall to their shared Advanced Biology class. Big, football-player Johnny Costello knocks the books out of the hands of a passing freshman, and he and handsome, blue-eyed Randy Thompson laugh about it as they keep walking. Carol mutters something about cliches (Hallie barely listens, she knows it will end up being exactly what she was thinking, they're like that) and stops to help him pick up his books- Hallie walks right past and punches thuggish Johnny Costello straight in his jeering mouth. It's the seventh time she's punched someone in the face, and she now knows enough to avoid breaking her hand. He stands there staring stupidly- he's almost a foot taller than her, probably weighs half again as much- and she turns around and walks back to help Thomas and Carol, just in time to hear Tom make a smart remark and note the sudden softness in Carol's eyes.

 

Later that week Randy Thompson approaches her, all blue, apologetic eyes and strong jaw. He tells her he's sorry, that she's really cool, and can he please make it up to her, please, maybe with dinner? She's not exactly sure how they end up fucking in the back seat of his mother's car, but when she hears about the bet at school she paints on a smile and tells him he wasn't her best, but if he'd like to do it again sometime she's available.

 

The offers come pouring in after that, and she takes them. Carol tries to talk to her, once or twice, but Hallie tells her it feels good, so what's the issue, and Carol can't quite answer.

 

Hallie thinks of her father often. His jacket is far too big for her, but she wears it anyway. She thinks of him when she opens her closet and sees it, when her mother gets that dead look in her eyes, when she looks in the mirror- she looks just like him, it almost hurts when she sees her own eyes, they're the same color as his, the exact same, and that's sometimes the reason her mother gets that dead-eyed look. She plays the classic rock CD's she remembers him singing in the car and learns their lyrics in addition to the songs she and Carol scream at sleepovers. She wonders what he would think of her while she's on her knees sucking off some basketball player, what he would think of her as she brings home her straight A's, what he would think of her as she almost sets the kitchen on fire trying to cook (they're poor, her Mom works, her brother works, and she's too young to work- ergo she should cook and do the laundry and take care of Jim, she doesn't understand why her Mom doesn't get it.) Almost once a week, she goes to sleep and ends up watching him die. She never tells anyone about the nightmares.

 

She doesn't go to college, going straight into the pilot's program while Carol completes her business degree. The first time she flies is like being born again. Her fingers fly across the panels like she's done it a thousand times, and she does a few tricks that she should have no idea how to pull. The instructor tells her she's a natural. She and Carol sit outside the hangar for two straight hours, breathing hard, with her hair even messier than it is usually and Carol's hair slightly tousled. She's still breathing hard when they drag themselves to their feet and stumble to the car, grinning maniacally.

 

They share an apartment, and when Carol and Tom finally start dating she promises to make herself scarce twice a week, either fucking some guy she met in a bar or sleeping at her Mom's. On her twenty-first birthday,she convinces Carol to go with her to a college party, after they've had her small, private party, just her, Carol and Tom (and she likes the guy so much, in a rare-for-her, totally not sexual way, that she can't even resent the intrusion, or be jealous) and ends up getting a doctored drink. She wakes up slumped in an alleyway with bruises all over and her panties around her ankles- she calls a frantic Carol, who speeds across town and blows through two red lights, with a screaming Tom in her backseat. He scrambles out first and reaches to help her up. She screams.

 

She gets over it, of course. She won't go to therapy- she doesn't  _need_  fucking therapy- but Carol still nags. She tells Jack, (who kisses her so,  _so_  gently on the cheek, and then goes into the kitchen and breaks ten plates, seven bowls, three glasses, and a window) and her mother, who insists she report it no matter how much she says it doesn't matter.

 

"You wouldn't be saying that if it had happened to me!" shouts Carol, finally fed up with walking on eggshells around her, and there's really no good answer to that. 

 

They don't catch the guy. Guys, rather.  

 

The nightmares get worse after that, her father's fiery explosion mixed with dark, shadowy figures in a filthy alleyway. She deals with it pretty well, she thinks- though according to Carol she isn't  _dealing_  with anything- she's back to her old routine as soon as it comes back that she's clean and not pregnant.

 

Carol and Tom get married two years later. They're so in love it's embarrassing, and Hallie can't figure out why they waited this long. She is maid of honor, of course, and throws the bachlorette party with a few of Carol's college friends, Tom's sisters, and Jack's wife Janice. No strippers, but she begs and pleads and threatens until they get a cake shaped like a penis.

* * *

She's late, the day of the drone test, sleeping next to a blue-eyed blond who works out quite a bit (Eric? Andrew?) and not waking up until it's almost too late. She wraps the present in the car (and crap, is that really today?) and is yanking on her suit when Carol comes in to chew her out. There's something in her, something that can't be anger (because why is she angry) and can't be fear ( _"Aren't you afraid, Dad?" "It's my job not to be."_ ) and when she stalls she can't make her limbs move, all she can see is her father, all she can think of is the heart-stopping terror of his last moments before the fire-

 

Carol's been angry with her before, but this is something else. It doesn't help that Tom can't keep from grinning.

 

"Did you choke, Hal? You wouldn't be the first."

 

Only she didn't because she couldn't, because she doesn't choke, if she chokes then what good is she?

 

And then it stops being an issue, because she's been kidnapped by a green bubble, and what the  _fuck_.

 

She begs him not to die, because this is striking a shit-ton of parallel bars. A pilot, male, older than her (though he might be fifteen and a girl, she's not an expert at alien biology) plus that whole "insightful last words" thing. 

 

(Honor. Responsibility. Green bubble. Purple alien. What. The fuck.)

 

She buries him (she can't just leave him there, remembers her father's empty casket) considers calling Carol, realizes she'll still be unraveling her mess and probably won't pick up, realizes she might not pick up even if she  _weren't_  busy unraveling her mess, and calls Tom instead.

 

"Maybe on his planet responsibility just means idiot," he offers.

 

"Let's hope so." Because, fuck, she is _so_  not cut out for this shit.

* * *

She says the oath. It's like a dream, or one of her nightmares, where she can't control her own actions, and it doesn't mean anything.

 

It doesn't.

 

Then Carol shows up, asking to talk to her. She's got a piece of weird-ass, mind-control alien space junk sitting on her coffee table, so she convinces her to go get a drink. 

 

"About today," says Carol. "Your Dad-"

 

And she's up and running, like she always does when her father is mentioned.

 

They corner her in the parking lot, the guys from work, and she can smell the liquor on their breath (they're stinking drunk, all of them) and their hands are everywhere,  _everywhere,_  groping piggishly at her breasts and slamming across her face in a vicious backhand as they jeer, and she can't help feeling a fleeting instant of betrayal, because even though they were never friends (big, tough guys who got smoked in the air by a girl, she and Carol fought their way into that business with tooth, nail, and family connections, and they kept themselves there by being the best, which didn't endear them to the regular guys) but that instant is lost under a flood of  _no, no, no, not again, please-_  


She strikes out, blindly, her shirt ripped in half and her jeans around her ankles, unable even to scream, and her hand is emblazoned on the air in front of her in that same green light that kidnapped her, and then there's another bubble and the green is all she can see before she passes out.

* * *

The talking fish isn't even the weirdest thing she's seen this week. That's kind of sad.

 

"When you arrived here," says Tomar-Re delicately, after she finishes checking out her new unitard (which, by the way, is  _bitchin_ ') "your garments were torn." He gives her a searching look, and yes, she  _is_  assigning expressions to a talking fish. Bird. Dinosaur. Thingy.

 

She bites her lip. "A, a group of men..." she tries, and swallows hard, because, really, they didn't manage to do it, it shouldn't be a big deal- "in a parking lot. I'd- disagreed- with them earlier, and they thought they'd teach me a lesson."

 

"Did they..."

 

"Nope. I fought 'em off until the magical green stuff showed up. Mind explaining where I am?"

 

He does. Holy shit.

 

"Now, we fly," says Tomar-Re (she already likes him, he reminds her of her father) and she flings herself off the balcony with no hesitation, because this, she can do. This she can do very well.

 

And it's glorious. It's even better than a plane, nothing but her, the wind, and the sky, and she could stay up here forever, she really could-

 

And then it all comes crashing down.

 

Literally.

 

"Lanterns," says the pinkish-purplish guy (magenta? fuchsia?) in tones that aren't quite British, but filled with authority,and sort of sexy, and softly dangerous in a way she can't quite describe. "I've called you here to this unprecedented gathering because we face an unprecedented danger. Our four Lantern brothers were killed by an enemy called Parallax; an enemy we don't...  _yet_  fully understand." She can tell that last sentence stuck in his craw. "We do know it's powerful enough to destroy entire civilizations. Powerful enough to defeat even Abin Sur, our finest warrior, whose like-" he tilts his head and seems to stare right at her- "can never be replaced." Weird-looking creatures turn and stare- she moves closer to Tomar-Re and does her best to glare back. 

 

"The Guardians have charged me to lead a squadron of our strongest Lanterns in an assault on Parallax. We _will_  seek out and fight this enemy. And we  _will_  destroy it." It's not a promise. It's a statement of fact.

 

 "Alone... we are now vulnerable." He hates it. She can tell. "United... we are still invincible." There's something in the air, some quiet like the seconds of calm between the flash of lightning and the boom of thunder.

 

"We have never been defeated," says the dangerous man, and there is fire and steel in his voice. "Will we be defeated now?"

 

"No!" roar voices across the crowd. She's half-tempted to join in herself.

 

"It is for  _this_  moment that we were created," he says. "But I don't need to tell  _you_  your duty." Energy gathers throughout the vast chamber. She can feel it thickening around her, through her-

 

"I don't need to tell  _you_  who we are," says the man, raising his arms, and the roaring begins-

 

"We! Are! the Corps!" scream the aliens around her. "We! Are! the Corps! We! Are! the Corps!" Almost as one, fists jab upwards, and thin lines of green energy lance upwards into the sky, and for the first time it hits her that this is big.

 

This is bigger than her. This is huge, monstrously so, and she is quite possibly the worst person in the world- the universe, rather- who could ever have been chosen. She literally cannot think of a single person she knows less suited to being a part of some ancient, universe-wide brotherhood of heroes. Carol would be better, Jack or Jim better. Hell,  _Jason_  would be better. But they aren't here. She is.

 

Fuck.

* * *

"Hey, little lady," says Kilowag, who's what you'd get if you took a warthog, a toad, and a water buffalo and mashed them together on two legs. He leans in close. She doesn't tense up- he doesn't look anything like a human man. "This is the human, huh?" He sniffs. It's horrifying. "You smell funny."

 

" _I_  smell funny?"

 

"Yeah, I heard about humans. Think you're the center of the universe. You wanna be a lantern? You gotta commit to the Corps!"

 

They begin in an open field. They open nice and slow, with Kilowog dropping a nine-ton boulder on her head.

 

What. The-

 

The flying disk slams into her stomach. All her wounds are healed, but she's still a bit tender, which hurts worse, and thank God Kilowog let go of her feet, because they'd probably have been ripped off if he hadn't.

 

Something that looks a lot like a black hole appears behind her. She barely hooks a green-glowing line into the ground. 

 

"Gravity's a bitch, little lady," says Kilowag, and lets her drop. He offers to help her up and punches her in the face with what is probably .02 percent of his total strength. "Remember, your enemy? He's not gonna play fair."

 

She jerks both her feet up and slams them into his groin, trusting in anatomical similarity. He yelps and bends over, and she slides through his feet, jerks herself up behind him, throws a chain between his legs to lock around his neck, and yanks. He flips over and lands hard on his back. "Well, that's good advice," she says. "Thanks, gorgeous." For a moment, she feels a surge of optimism.

 

"So," comes a voice from behind her, and she tenses.

 

It's the dangerous man from earlier, and he's looking at her with such distaste that she almost turns around to see if his arch-nemesis is standing behind her, or something, because she's never met the guy, and where exactly does he get off looking at her like that?

 

"This is the human," he says, standing too close to her. "When I heard Abin Sur's ring had chosen you, I said there had to be a mistake." He pauses, tilting his head to stare straight into her eyes, and fuck, does he practice that look in a mirror? "I see nothing to change my mind." 

 

Dangerous  _and_  an asshole. Not a good combo. She jerks her chin up to meet his piercing green gaze.

 

"I'll take it from here, Kilowog," he calls, without removing his eyes from hers. She can feel Kilowog leave the platform and feels oddly bereft, which is weird. She generally doesn't get attached to people who punch her in the face.

 

"The Corps is only as strong as it's weakest link. And I will tolerate no weak links. Do you understand?"

 

She doesn't answer. His head tilts again, a predator with it's prey in it's sights.

 

"Are you afraid, human?" When there is no response, he leans forward, in her face, unblinking. "Are you  _afraid?_ " She flinches back automatically from the proximity, the memory of the men from the parking lot still raw in her mind, and he gives something that could charitably be called a smile.

 

"Sinestro," calls Tomar-Re uncertainly from the sidelines. "You should know that-"

 

The dangerous man- Sinestro, and isn't that fitting- makes a dismissive movement of his hand, without even looking, and Tomar-Re stops talking abruptly as if slapped.

 

That pisses her off.

 

"Shall we?" asks Sinestro. 

 

"Sure," she says, and without her consciously thinking about it, a sword materializes in her hand, one of those big-handled cutlasses that pirates carry.

 

"A  _sword_ ," mocks Sinestro. "How  _human._ " Swords appear in both his hands.

 

" _Two_  swords," she says, her voice oddly dry. "Compensating, much?"

 

For the first time, his disgusted look wavers, and she takes the opportunity to attack with a yell, a wild swing with both hands on the grip, like she's trying to hit a baseball. He blocks with ease, and she hits again, from the other side, swinging her leg up in a kick that he intercepts with a hilt- he goes to impale her, she dodges left and whirls around him, lunging at him from the back-

 

- _slam_ , his elbow strikes her square in the face-

 

-she's on the ground, vulnerable- 

  
_-hands all over, no, no_ -

 

"I do believe I smell fear," Sinestro says, with an air of satisfaction, and she  _hates_  him-

 

-she's up and lunging, he knocks her sword away contemptuously, a blur of movement and his swords are at her throat-

 

"I'm a Green Lantern," he says, satisfaction gone and quiet, deadly anger in it's place. "I fear nothing." And his blades shriek over themselves, closer to her neck, she chokes, she's helpless, he could do anything-

 

- _"Stupid bitch," slurs Hoffman, stilling her arm with his bruising grip-_  


-Sinestro backhands her, not hard, across the face, she stumbles-

 

- _her shirt tangles over her head, she kicks out, Guiterrez's fist on her cheek-_  


 

"Fear is the enemy of will," he says, grasping her by the hair at the nape of her neck and yanking her close, she flails at his arm without thought but it's like a steel cable-

 

- _Karofsky's hand tangles in her hair, yanking her closer, "kiss me, Jordan"_ -

 

"Will is what makes you take action." His sword points between her eyes, she can't breathe-

 

- _"I told you to watch your back, Jordan"_ -

 

 "Fear is what stops you." She thrashes like a worm on a hook- "And makes you  _weak_." He yanks her around and a short green knife almost impales her throat-

 

- _"pathetic," whispers Adams, isn't he married-_  


  
_-_ he lets her go, she stumbles back, almost against her will a green-glowing brick wall materializes between them, he smashes it to bits and she's flying backwards, slamming into another wall that pops into existence and vanishes before she can slide down it-

 

- _Hoffman slams her into the side of a car, a rib cracks-_  


 

"It makes your constructs  _feeble,_ " he sneers, and she's somehow got a green machine gun, and then the swords are back, three of them this time-

 

- _Karofsky pushes her into Adams, who shoves her at Hoffman, she stumbles-_  


 

-they're all around her-

 

- _they're all around her_ -

 

"You must ignore your fear," he's walking towards her, "When you're afraid you can't act-

 

- _"quit moving, bitch"_ -

 

-when you can't act you can't defend-

 

- _she hits him and he laughs_ -

 

-when you can't defend, you die," she grabs a sword and dives at him with a guttural scream, he blocks and kicks her hard in the stomach-

 

- _Guiterrez's fist slams into her abdomen_ -

 

-she can't breathe-

 

- _she can't breathe_ -

 

-she lands on her back and scrambles away and screams again, this time short and sharp and shrill-

 

- _there are tears in her eyes-_  


 

-there are tears in her eyes- 

 

_-she never cries-_

 

-she never cries-

 

-she never cries-

 

"You  _reek_  of fear, Hallie Jordan," he spits, and he's practically trembling in rage, but masters himself, and the world is re-ordering itself again. 

 

"Abin Sur was a great warrior," he says, gaze unwavering. "My mentor."

 

A pause, then softer- "my friend."

 

" _You_ -" he says it like an expletive- "insult his memory by wearing his ring."

 

He's gone.

 

Tomar-Re is suddenly there, and he extends a hand to help her up-  _Carol_  looks more like a man than he does but she flinches away anyway.

 

"Hallie," he says, and his voice is so soothing she gives a muffled sob- "you must understand, Sinestro had no idea-"

 

"Fuck you," she says, muffled.

 

"Hallie-"

 

"Little lady-"

 

"He's right," she says numbly. "I'm only human. We aren't ready to defend the universe, up until a few days ago we thought we were the only ones  _in_  the universe!"

 

"The ring would not have-"

 

"That ain't-"

 

" _Look at me!_ " she rages, uncurling herself so they can see her reddening eyes and tear-streaked face. "Do I fucking  _look_  like I could defend  _anything?_!"

 

"Hallie-"

 

"Little lady-"

 

She leaves. Tomar-Re puts a hand on her shoulder and she almost screams at him to let go. The magical green bubble carries her home, and she curls up in bed and tries not to cry.

* * *

She goes to the party to see Carol. She flatly refuses to think about Oa, or Sinestro, or the guys from work, but she has to apologize to her friend. She takes her ring-  _the_  ring, it's  _not_  hers, they'll probably be sending someone to collect it soon- and wears actual formal clothing- a black V-neck sheath dress.

 

She's always kind of liked Hector Hammond. He stutters, and she gives it ten years before his hair is nothing but a distant memory, but he's nice in a puppyish sort of way and he blushes adorably when she makes a joke about sex. He's also, she's noted, a genuinely good guy, with plenty of principles that actually mean something to him.

 

His father, on the other hand, makes her want to vomit. John Hammond's tall and handsome and sleazy in the way that politicians are, only more so. His gaze is always too high or too low and he pours on enough cologne to drown a litter of kittens. She doesn't like to talk to him and she's not a huge fan of looking at him either. His forehead is pretty obviously Botoxed and weirdly shiny.

 

She gulps down a drink.

 

"Rough night?" asks Hector.

 

"Hector!" She smiles and kisses him on the cheek. The proximity disturbs her, in a way nice, nerdy Hector Hammond shouldn't, even in her current state. "What've you been up to?"

 

"Oh, you know," he shrugs, smiles. "Same old, same old!"

 

"Me, too," she says, and then John Hammond is descending on her. He's decided to play the favorite uncle again tonight- she can't say she likes it any better than the sophisticated,  _experienced_  older man, and it's considerably more phony. 

 

"Hallie Jordan!" he says, smiling widely, the light gleaming off his white teeth. He completely ignores his son, going so far as to turn them away from him. "Here's the worst pilot I've ever seen- or the best, I can't decide."

 

_And how many times did you rehearse that line, Johnny?_

 

Aloud- "Well, sir, I get that a lot."

 

"I'll bet you do." Another wide, fake smile, and how does he get his teeth that shiny? "You know, darlin', there are thinkers in this world and there are doers, and you, Hallie, are a doer."

 

Ouch. She tries not to look at Hector. "Well, we need thinkers, too," she says, as diplomatically as she knows how. "I mean, I wouldn't have a jet to fly unless somebody thought it up."

 

John nods, gives her a patronizing,  _isn't that cute_ , sort of smile. She kind of wants to punch him in the face, and when Hector excuses himself to grab a drink she can't blame him at all. 

 

She finds Carol and apologizes. It goes pretty well, and they did get the deal negotiated, so when she's finished with this green space-cop shit she might still have a job.

 

She finds Tom. He hasn't told Carol about the alien space junk, yet- when she asks him why he said she assumed  _she_  was going to tell her, and why the hell hasn't she?

 

"I will, I will," she says, "but-"

 

And then the shit really hits the fan. The helicopter spirals out of control and people are screaming and running and getting trampled- and then Carol stops to help pick up the fat bass player (and she would, wouldn't she, Hallie isn't even surprised) and then somehow the ring is on and people are filming and Carol's father is crying and Tom is yelling his wife's name as he bulldozes his way through the crowd and  _fuck_. Just... fuck. 

 

Tom shows up at her apartment a day later, and is totally a jerk about the whole go-cart track thingy, the one she, you know,  _materialized out of pure energy, saving hundreds of people,_  and he makes her show him the unitard. Carol's at work, he says- go tell her. Now. 

* * *

"Oh my god.  _Hal?_ "

 

"How did you know it was me?"

 

"What do mean? I've known you my whole life! I've seen you  _naked_ , you don't think I would recognize you 'cause I can't see your  _cheekbones?_!"

 

"..."

 

"What  _is_  this? Why is your skin green, why are you glowing, what the  _hell_  is with that  _mask_?!"

 

"It... came with the outfit."

* * *

The ring drags her to nice, nerdy Hector Hammond, and he  _destroys_  her. It's like fire, in her head, like wild cats are locked in screeching, clawing battle, ripping her brain apart, and her father is dying and she's lying in the alleyway too bruised to move and the guys from work are pinning her down- " _you insult him,"_  says Sinestro-

* * *

"I'm afraid," she tells Carol. Tom looks away, because this is them, not him.

 

"You don't think your Dad ever felt afraid?" she asks, and kneels before her chair.

 

"If he did, he'd find a way to beat it." Like she hadn't, when pervy John Hammond was dying.

 

"Yeah, well, there's a word for that," says Carol. "Courage."

 

She stands up.

* * *

"You will die, Hallie Jordan," says Sinestro when the Guardians refuse to help her.

 

"Then I'll die trying," she says.

 

"Good luck, Green Lantern," he says quietly, and that means more than four words have any right to.

* * *

"-because  _you_ , Hallie Jordan, were afraid," says Parallax with a voice like booming thunder and agonized screams, and seriously,  _fuck him_. She isn't going to take this shit from a giant floating lightbulb.

* * *

She puts everything she has, everything she  _is_ , into that last punch that hurls him into the sun, and drifts until Sinestro catches her shoulders.

 

Gently.

* * *

"You're impertinent, Jordan," says Sinestro, giving her an evaluating look. "You're rash. Volatile. Opinionated." He does his predatory head-cocking thing, only this time he smiles, or at least twitches his lips, which is probably his version of a hug. "It seems Abin Sur found another just like himself."

 

She beams at him.

* * *

"So what happens now?" asks Carol, releasing her from her hug. Tom waits and takes her hand as she steps back.

 

She's already explained everything and said goodbye to her mother and family- and damn, was Jason excited to find out his aunt was a superhero- plus packed up all her stuff and stowed it at Jack's house. She's quit her job and paid her remaining bills. Her Mom redid her old room and put her money in her own account. She's got a place to stay when she want to come visit and Tomar-Re said something about quarters on Oa, which is where she's heading first.

 

"I'm gonna go look for trouble," she says, and backflips off the balcony.

 


End file.
